Discover how CTV is accelerating in Japan as TBS’s Mai Hasegawa reflects on her role bridging cultures, driving innovation, and reshaping digital marketing.
Over the past fifteen years, digital marketing in Japan has seen consistent evolution, driven by pioneers who have continually expanded what’s achievable. Their dedication to improving digital advertising for consumers, brands, agencies, and publishers alike is an inspiration to all. This quarterly interview series highlights these innovators and shares best practices that can be adopted to advance the industry in Japan and worldwide.
We recently sat down with Mai Hasegawa, Digital Sales Global Chief at TBS Television, who provides fascinating perspectives on the way CTV is taking off in Japan. A journey she has been an active part of and has seen from different sides.
We asked Mai to reflect on that journey and how bringing together differing perspectives has spurred innovation and growth within an increasingly important channel in Japan.
I grew up in Japan until age 11, and then we moved to Singapore because of my father’s work. I came back to Japan for college, but also did an exchange in the US while I was a student. These experiences gave me a different perspective on what Japan has to offer the rest of the world, but also vice versa.
I think a lot of people living in Japan don’t have much desire to go outside the country, and many don’t even have passports. Japan is already a rich culture, and everyone is satisfied with living here. They don’t feel they need to go out to get a better something, you know, because everything is already perfect.
But I don’t think like this. I like the idea of exchanging ideas from different cultures, and I want to build bridges between Japan and other countries. This is the thing I wanted to focus on when I came home from the US.
The bridge was TV, the world I now work in. Actually, to be precise, it was Japanese drama, which I believe is some of the best in the world but is not so well-known outside of Japan. You could say I came back from the US with a personal mission to change this.
When I was in the US I was shocked to find there were no Japanese series on TV. There was Korean drama, and people were into K-Pop groups. But nothing from Japan. Squid Games, the South Korean drama was really huge on Netflix at the time, and everybody in my class was watching it. I remember one Monday we all gathered at a friend’s place and watched the whole content in a day. And all I could think was: “why not Japan?!” It was then that I decided I wanted to work in the TV industry to help change this.
I got a job at TBS, one of the major broadcasters in Japan. I started out in DX Business Development, where my job was to liaise with TVer. TVer is a Broadcast Video on Demand aggregator for the major broadcasters in Japan, and I would promote TBS’s content for inclusion on its platform. I was responsible for roughly 10 programs at times and worked on communicating with the producers of each program to maximize content viewership on TVer. After about a year, a position became vacant at TBS in Digital Sales. It’s what I’m doing now.
In this new position, half my role involves communicating with an advertising agency here in Japan. And the other half involves talking with overseas clients and agencies about what TBS has to offer. I enjoy the role as it allows me to build the bridges I was talking about. These bridges are made through advertising, encouraging global brands to advertise on TBS. At its heart is an exchange between Japan and overseas, which is why I got into TV in the first place, to be an ambassador for Japanese drama.
At the simplest level, TBS has advertising slots that we want to make attractive to overseas advertisers. But they don’t really understand this market. Which is where I come in, promoting Japan and Japanese drama to overseas clients who might want to run campaigns, but didn’t really know how to do it or understand the culture. It goes back to that original problem I encountered in the US, where there was very little awareness of Japanese content, and with the language and the cultural barriers, it’s kind of a closed book to many outside. I am opening that book via advertising media. I’m bringing the west to Japan, but most importantly, I’m promoting Japan to the west.
I deal with sales people in the overseas agencies. They sell advertising inventory (basically the advertising slots that are available) from multiple countries to their customers, the brands. The US and UK tend to be the top ones they sell, but also from Spanish and German broadcasters. Currently, they might not think about Japan as a priority, and are not very familiar with the Japanese landscape.
I help them to understand a bit more of how Japan works and how the culture is. Or the agencies might have customers that are interested in Japan, but don’t know how to go about running campaigns here. I can help, and even set up the actual campaigns as well. That’s how I’m acting as an ambassador - both commercial and cultural. I’m helping to promote the Japanese advertising inventory as a choice for overseas brands, but I’m also promoting Japanese content as attractive too.
It’s early days, but it’s growing. The sales people at the agencies are mostly interested in the targeting, audience numbers and how many connected devices there are. After I’ve explained a little bit about Japan, I explain that TBS has the largest market share and we're popular for our drama series.
The targeting requests that I get mostly focus on things like travel interest, or the household income, right now, but what I want in the future is to sell by the content itself. Right now, because nobody knows the Japanese content, they only focus on targeting. My ambition is to shift the conversation to being about the content that we’re very proud of, and to sell by that.
I’d say TBS is definitely a pioneer, and I’m working hard to take this even further. It’s pioneering by going outside of Japan, in terms of business, and in terms of exchanging ideas through content. TBS is part of a European TV union, called EGTA. And we’re the only member from Asia.
Since 2023, we have been attending the EGTA meetings every quarter. This is where we began sowing the seeds about Japanese content and the possibility of running campaigns in Japan. This was quite disruptive. First, because nobody knew about our content, nobody bought it. Then, because Japan was unknown and difficult for overseas agencies to enter, they didn't know where to start. We’re steadily changing the status quo, and are now working with a number of agencies, from the connections with EGTA.
For one thing, it brings in opportunities for Japan that wouldn’t otherwise exist. We initiated the interactions between overseas clients and Japan, which feels like a real, impactful change. I'm proud to be a part of this movement. And also, because I'm trying to promote Japan as a culture.
It's a good way, I think, to promote Japan, because through this business exchange, there’s a cultural exchange too. I’m happy to spread Japan’s goodness, you know. That’s important to me, as it’s the reason I wanted to work in TV in the first place.
In Japan, people are not always encouraged to stand out or get above other people, to be too ambitious. There’s pressure to conform and be comfortable with the average. Instead, I believe in standing up to take more opportunities. That’s why I’ve pushed to grow this global part of the business, although, to be honest, it’s supposed to be only about 30% of my role. I am very thankful and proud of the rest of my team, who have been very supportive in helping grow this global business, and even challenge the status quo.
My immediate ambition is that we can shift the conversation from being about targeting to attracting advertisers by the quality of the content. But I do have an even bigger ambition. Right now, I'm pretty sure Japan is something like 8th or 10th on the list for the overseas agencies. My dream is that Japanese drama is so attractive to western brands that Japan comes at the top!
Yes, it’s a very big ambition, but in the time I’ve been working on this project, I’ve seen change happening. We’re steadily seeing greater awareness and demand from overseas brands to advertise with us. Only a year and a half ago, we’d see all our sales concentrated in Q4. This suggests Japan was an afterthought, and they were using leftover budget.
But now we’re seeing demand in other quarters throughout the year, suggesting it’s more strategic and intentional. This is really encouraging. We're also working with more agency partners. Originally, it was just one. Currently, it’s six and growing. We’re even considering going to Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity next year, to really spread the word about Japanese content, which will be the very first time for us!
Stay tuned for the next edition of Pioneered in Japan, coming next quarter, where we share new stories of forward-thinking marketers and industry-shaping work.
Summary
Philip Tabet is the Managing Director of Equativ Japan. With deep expertise in the APAC adtech landscape, he has a proven track record of scaling global businesses and delivering innovative, locally relevant marketing solutions. He plays a key role in advancing Equativ’s strategy to invest in high-growth markets and provide transparent, premium programmatic offerings to clients across APAC and MENA.
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